This is the reason that I ultimately came over from the cautious supporting “civil union” side to supporting full marriage. We don’t want a society in which some people are “kind of” married, sort of married. We don’t want a two-tiered model of marriage. We don’t want a two-tiered model of justice. We don’t want a two-tiered model of citizenship. A two-tiered justice is not justice, and a two-tiered citizenship is not real citizenship.

CHICAGO (RNS) At the corner of West 63rd Street and South Fairfield, there are all the predictable signs of decline: vacant businesses, empty lots, spikes in violence. But this nondescript intersection is also the site of a renaissance in American Islam, where new Muslim institutions are emerging at an unprecedented rate.

(RNS) It’s the constitutionally mandated oath of office, not the pair of historic Bibles, that is both necessary and sufficient for President Obama to begin his second term. Linking that oath to any religious text does not add to its efficacy. By A. James Rudin.

(RNS) Muslim and Coptic Christian leaders in the U.S. are calling on the Egyptian government to keep any mentions of Shariah law out of its draft constitution, as well as any language that discriminates against religious minorities. By Omar Sacirbey.